Hawker Hurricane Mk.I L1670 of No.55 OTU crashed on Ravenseat Moor near Keld on the 31st March 1941

Frederick Charles Hill

Pilot Officer

Pilot

Survived

Pilot Officer Hill was on formation flying exercise from Usworth near Sunderland when the engine of L1670 began to overheat and caught fire. With glycol coolant leaking from the engine and spraying back onto the windscreen preventing any forward vision and fire ahead of the cockpit P/O Hill abandoned the aircraft which then crashed on moorland on the edge of Whitsun Dale, itself a spur off Swaledale, near Keld in North Yorkshire. The aircraft did not dive straight into the ground as often happened after being abandoned but crashed at a much shallower angle spreading wreckage over a large area, which today has left relatively little behind.

Rather than diving into the ground it would appear that L1670 flew into the ground at a fairly shallow angle spreading wreckage over a fairly long, narrow, area of grassy moorland.

After completing his training P/O Hill was later promoted to Flying Officer, he was killed in a mid-air collision on the 18th November 1942 while serving in North Africa. He is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial for those with no known / maintained grave in the Mediterranean and North Africa.

The largest piece which we located at the crash site was this balance weight which is marked with a Hurricane part number.One of the smaller fragments which we found during our visit to the crash site.